The present invention relates to a continuous process for the surface modification of materials used in a number of products such as cigarette filters, cigarette paper, plug wrap, paper filter plug, medical applications, bandages, cosmetic and cleaning material and the like, and more particularly to such surface modification through high energy ablation and surface modification of target precursors.
To improve filtration selectivity, additives are usually physically blended with fibers used in cigarette filters. This introduces an additional complication in the filter making process that requires additional process controls and can potentially have a negative impact on throughput. For efficient selective filtration, current practice may require the use of additives in large quantities since only the outer surface of the additives may be exposed to react with tobacco smoke components during the smoking process. If large quantities of additives are needed, then effective filter design and high cost may become issues difficult to resolve. Also uniform mixing or uniform modification of the filter surface is another problem commonly associated with large amounts of additive materials. While the prior art generally teaches how to ablate material it does not address processes for forming modified cigarette filters in one step.